More News

Reuters: A Ukrainian woman says she suffered beatings, had a plastic bag thrust over her head and endured many other threats from Russian soldiers in occupied Ukraine who wanted to know where her son-in-law was serving in the Ukrainian army.

Bloomberg: Germany has pledged to spend €300 million as part of a Czech-led initiative to buy 800,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine (archive).

The Kyiv Independent: The railway Russia is constructing in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which leads to Crimea, is "a serious challenge" and "an important target" for Kyiv, Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson of Ukraine's military intelligence, said on March 21.

Bloomberg: The European Union is set to propose punitive tariffs on the imports of some Russian agricultural products as early as Friday, a move that should all but halt trade of the restricted items destined for the bloc (archive).

The Kyiv Independent: Putin needs to understand that Western support for Ukraine could extend to troops on the ground, the chief of France’s Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard, said on March 21, as reported by AFP.

Reuters: Ukraine could dismantle within days its "sponsors of war" blacklist, central to Kyiv's campaign to expose companies doing business with Russia, after a backlash from countries including China and France.

AFP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a summit of EU leaders on Thursday that allowing unfettered access to Russian grain while capping imports from Ukraine was "unfair".

Reuters: New U.S. funding to boost domestic nuclear fuel production is a historic step but the world's nuclear consumers must also shift supply chains to meet the goal of loosening Russia's grip on the industry, a U.S. Department of Energy official said.

POLITICO: Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas mocked Putin on Thursday, making fun of the Russian president’s rigged election win last weekend. “I refuse to call [them] elections, I call it [a] special nomination operation,” Kallas told reporters on the doorstep at the European Council summit.

Reuters: Poland will contribute logistically as well as financially to a Czech-led plan to boost ammunition supplies to Ukraine via purchases outside Europe, the Polish foreign minister said on Thursday.

Bloomberg: Danish maritime authorities have detained a tanker that was due to carry Russian oil after it collided with another ship in its waters earlier this month (archive).

Ukrainska Pravda: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that Vienna opposes the idea of using the profits from Russia's frozen assets to provide weapons for Ukraine.

Bloomberg: The US proposed to its Group of Seven allies that they create a special purpose vehicle to issue at least $50 billion of bonds backed by the profits generated by frozen Russian sovereign assets and use the proceeds to support Ukraine (archive).

Reuters: The launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft was aborted just seconds before scheduled lift-off to the International Space Station on Thursday and the crew of a Russian, a Belarusian and an American were safety evacuated.

Estonian Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur announced a defense aid package for Ukraine worth 20 million euros during his visit to Kyiv on March 21. "The package includes recoilless anti-tank guns, explosives, various types of artillery ammunition, gas masks, sniper equipment, smaller caliber ammunition, and more," Pevkur said.

WP: Western firms bought hundreds of millions of dollars of titanium metal from a Russian company with deep ties to the country’s defense industry following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of Russian export data (archive).

AFP: Russia has expelled a journalist from Spain's El Mundo daily after refusing to renew his work visa, the newspaper reported Thursday, calling it an attack on press freedom.

The Kyiv Independent: Several Chinese banks have stopped accepting payments from Russia in Chinese yuan, fearing ramifications of U.S. sanctions, the Russian state-controlled outlet Izvestia reported.

Bloomberg: Chinese purchases of Russian coal slumped in the first two months of the year, after Beijing reimposed import taxes that make Russian supplies less competitive (archive).

Reuters: India's Reliance Industries, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, will not buy Russian oil loaded on tankers operated by shipper Sovcomflot after recent U.S. sanctions.

worth mentioning

How Putin's pocket company Sibur operates in Europe, earning profits from exports

Foreign Policy: Ukraine’s war is killing another country

US tests hypersonic missile in Pacific as it aims to keep up with China and Russia

Several prisons in Russia’s Krasnodar region to close because army recruitment has led to fewer prisoners

Russa-Ukraine Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Do you think your friend or colleague should know about this newsletter? Forward it to them, please. They can also sign up here

Here are my: Telegram & Socials

Please do support my work